Ryan Chudzinski never thought about running his own business — until he took Dwight Carey’s Fox School Entrepreneurship class last spring.

And Chris Anderson already had started his own company, but after taking Carey’s class he learned how to make it flourish.

College calendar a hot idea
Chudzinski, junior a marketing major at the Fox School of Business, took Carey’s class as an elective.

After completing the requirement of coming up with a business plan, he soon knew he could make his idea — a calendar featuring some of the best-looking students at Temple — work.

“Professor Carey made me realize that anyone can start a business, they just need the right tools,” Chudzinski said.

Chudzinski decided to make two calendars, one for males and one for females, featuring 24 “beautiful people” at Temple.

To find his subjects, he advertised on the online community Facebook, calling for students to enter a modeling competition in which the winners would be featured in the calendar.

He sold votes at the Student Center at one penny per vote, and raised $1,000. He then had the winners photographed by a local Philadelphia photographer and his business was up and running.

Through October and November of 2006, Chudzinski lived and breathed the calendar, which sold for $10 each on Main Campus, at Barnes & Noble and at 7-11. In the end, he made $15,000.

But this aspiring entrepreneur isn’t setting his sights solely on Temple. For 2008, he has a new plan: to feature college students from all over the Philadelphia region, which, according to Chudzinski, includes about 200,000 students.

His calendars will feature at least one student from each school with a new sponsor each month. He’s targeting college-friendly businesses from Urban Outfitters and Apple to Snapple and Southwest Airlines.

“There’s no better way for a company to directly advertise than to get into the students’ dorm rooms,” he said.

Chudzinski’s ultimate dream is to launch his calendars nationwide, starting in New York City and Washington, D.C., and to become a full-time calendar publisher.

Chudzinski’s calendar idea placed him as a finalist in the Fox School Business Plan Competition held earlier this semester.

Class jumpstarts marketing business
Taking Dwight Carey’s class last fall helped jumpstart the interactive media and marketing business of Chris Anderson, a strategic and organizational communications major with a public relations concentration, who graduates this month from the School of Communications and Theater.

“Professor Carey was one of the best instructors and mentors I’ve ever come across,” Anderson said. “In addition to learning the basics of starting a business, I learned just how vital persistence, determination and passion are to any aspiring entrepreneur’s success.”

Anderson and his partner, Navid Safabakhsh a senior international business and finance double major at The Fox School, own a promotion company, Freshout Media, LLC. The company produces and promotes events, hosts a multi-dimensional web site and offers clients web development, technology solutions and various marketing and promotional services.

Safabakhsh, Freshout’s founder, started the media company in January of 2006, because he perceived a lack of marketing companies for artists in the Philadelphia area.

“They weren’t focusing on the intriguing sources of art, music and culture,” Safabakhsh explained. “We just knew we could do it better.”

He enlisted Anderson to help, and the two of them soon recruited about 30 people. Right now, Freshout employs 15 freelance journalists, 20 photographers and other subcontractors as needed.

The duo are particularly interested in promoting independent, emerging artists. “A lot of bands, performers and event producers often need extra help with promotion to make sure an audience is there,” Anderson said.

According to Safabakhsh, their company already does all of the street promotions for World Café Live. Last spring, Freshout Media made the web site for Urban Green Partnership and organized the rooftop event at Whole Foods on South Street last September, both a part of the South Street Green Festival. They also have done work for Comcast SportsNet and the Borgata Casino, among other clients.

Anderson and Safabakhsh plan to revamp their web site, www.freshoutmedia.com, for a full launch of Freshout Media this month. Both plan to work full-time at their business after graduation.